…Well at least this isn’t as bad of a catchup as before. School has started for me again, yet I’m being way more productive than I was without it since I can steal the building’s internet. Life is good. As for Hyouka, it’s also good. It’s almost sad how this slice of life anime is making my inner romance fangirl go off more than Arcana Famiglia, the otome game adaption.

Episode 19:

It’s the perfect disguise

Are Houtarou’s deductive successes luck, or are they an actual skill? I suppose this is the question that this episode was exploring. There’s no denying that Houtarou has something special (as cheesy as it sounds) since he pieced together the entire mystery with an extremely vague set of clues (…that could extend to the entire season). On the other hand though, there was luck involved too since he might not have deduced it correctly without Chintanda pointing some clues out (or without his sister’s help in the last arc). He had the luck of her being there and being knowledgable. While Houtarou was trying to prove to Chintanda that he’s not all the amazing since a lot of his deductions could be attributed to luck, there’s something to be said about the fact that he was correct, even after making such a wild theory. I know that he lost his original goal of trying to prove Chitanda wrong somewhere in the middle of it all, but still. For a guy trying to make a more unlikely story fit certain criteria, he figured it out pretty well.

Also interesting was the way the story pieced itself together. The solution was formed completely by forming theories and then figuring out if they worked or didn’t work with the circumstances. Thinking of it like a sudoku puzzle (I’ve been catching up on Phi Brain, can you tell?), it kind of makes sense that the right answer would be the correct conclusion they reach so long as all of their other information was right. At the same time though, life isn’t as simple as a sudoku puzzle and there are so many uncertain factors. They might have gone in a completely different direction and still could have found an answer that fit all of the criteria.

…Long story short, Houtarou has both skill and luck when solving mysteries and I have a headache from trying to wrap my head around all of this.

Oh man, the tension between Houtarou and Eru this episode. We’ve witnessed them grow closer over the course of the series, but this was the most concrete evidence yet that the two are attracted to each other. Eru has never really had problems with being that close to Houtarou before. The entire episode was incredibly fun to watch thanks to those two. Looking back at this episode after watching these other two, you can see a steady theme of exploration on pairings/ the character’s levels of awareness of one another amidst the mini side stories. It’s an interesting way to connect an arc for Hyouka since they’ve focused on a mystery to create an arc before.

Episode 20

The events of the episode aside, it’s nice to see how New Years shrines work in Japan without the distractions of fanservice and other nonsense. The little attention to detail with the breath showing in the cold air and shivering was really nice and consistent as well.

Even with her air-headed-ness, at least Chitanda has some sense of atmosphere and how things could be interpreted. Or I guess another way to phrase it is that I’m surprised that she even knows what couples do when they’re locked in a shed when she’s proven to be fairly naive and sheltered this entire anime. I find it a bit inconsistent that she would know what people would think if she was caught in a shed alone with a guy, but she has no idea about other things like how to ask people for favours without sounding desperate. …In the end, I assume that it’s part of the respectable image she has to maintain with her family being prestigious. Eru probably doesn’t have to ask for much due to her upbringing and her parents or whoever would have educated her on how and how not to act in public places.

Meanwhile…

Despite his lack of self confidence, Satoshi is pretty reliable if he can deduce Houtarou’s vague message. There was some subtle teamwork there with Houtarou knowing that Satoshi would have liked the drama enough to pay attention and pick up a message from it and Satoshi knowing that the string was something Houtarou would do. …Though I’m sure if they had dropped the bag in the first place, Mayaka would have come if they went missing for a long period of time. Sure, they might have had hypothermia by the time help arrived, but they wouldn’t have been stuck forever. …I also assume that neither Chitanda nor Houtarou had a pen/viable writing utensil that they could have just written a note in.

Episode 21

I’d take the chocolate’s statement seriously if I were you, Satoshi

Whoa, go Mayaka. At the beginning of the episode, I thought she was still giving Satoshi chocolate only because of her stubborn streak, but it seems she really likes the guy. Considering that she’s been thoroughly rejected ever since middle school, you have to admit that she has some admirable tenacity.

Satoshi on the other hand is still the same ball of inferiority issues. I’m glad this episode took a deeper look into that since it’s been a rather big issue these past arcs. Now, he mentioned that he gave up on ever trying to win and that’s why he gave up on ever being with Mayaka. That definitely explains the carefree attitude since there’s the mentality where you can justify losing by the fact that you never tried in the first place. On the other hand, something about that doesn’t quite add up since he was trying fairly hard to figure out who the culprit was back in the cultural festival. Maybe losing there was his absolute breaking point? Either way, the guy has some rather large issues to work out. I’m surprised that he even came out and said that he wants to be with Mayaka and it’s a dream that she even cares about him. I guess he’s not as gay as he previously acted.

…Though if you still wanted to go with the gay argument, you could just say that he likes the fact that Mayaka gives him attention.

So not only does Chitanda get fired up when she’s curious, she also does it when one of her friends is in trouble. I’m sure most of the people watching this could have deduced this character trait 5 episodes in, but at least no one can claim that she isn’t consistent. Another thing was Houtarou. He wasn’t visibly upset when he confronted Satoshi about breaking Mayaka’s chocolate, but he made a point of Chitanda getting hurt because of the whole thing.

If she hadn’t had the family rule about gifts, would Eru have given Houtarou chocolates? Did Satoshi ever figure things out with Mayaka? …Next week should be good assuming they continue this. I think it might be the last episode as well. I vaguely remember seeing that Hyouka only had 22 episodes. Even if it doesn’t continue, Hyouka has been absolutely wonderful to watch and I don’t regret picking this up from Miyu in the least bit.

15 Responses to “Hyouka – 19-21”

I almost wanted to see Chitanda give Satoshi a gift for Valentine’s Day, after explaining to Houtarou that her family doesn’t give gifts for that day to people they are very close to. As it was, I still thought it was a rather sweet implied confession.

Hopefully Satoshi will get to a point where he can moderate his life better between being obsessive about everything and obsessive about not obsessing about anything. But perhaps that’s the curse of the obsessive: they always obsess about something, even if it’s the pursuit of nothing.

That is where his problem lies. He’s afraid of himself. He’s his own worst enemy because he’s afraid of what he’ll do. He’s afraid that he might not change and continue to obsess which is a serious burden on his shoulders.

…Hopefully it happens in the next episode. I don’t know how or why it would happen, but seeing how the characters are still young and impressionable, I believe that Satoshi can change. The novels are finished, but I don’t know how much of them the anime covered or how well the anime is doing in Japan so who knows how conclusive the last episode will be for anything.

valentines valentines valentines, i just hope that Satoshi made his mind

i kind of sympathize with Satoshi, since im more of a all rounder, and never excel at one particular thing. First i tried to be good at everything, but than i found out that being not the best could still be fun as well. So i gave up trying to be the best, but enjoy the process. But my philosophy ends there and Satoshi pushes it further and calls it obsessive. So i guess i’m not a good philosopher than 🙂

But that doesn’t mean you can act like that Satoshi! I aint no philosopher but I sure know that if there is a girl that likes me, i should reply to her feelings, either yes or no, as soon as possible! >:)

Satoshi is my favourite character because I like his suffering depth in character. I can sympathize with him too to a certain extent and I can agree that his main problem is obsessiveness. As for Mayaka, yes, I feel sorry for her too. At the same time though, I can see where Satoshi is coming from. It’s hard for him to just accept her, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to push her away since she’s the only one who could ever see him as #1 (in his mind). …Or at least that’s how I’m interpreting the situation. It’s not very manly of him, but I imagine it’s still hard.

Hmm, they’ve gone into sqeezing the mysteries into individual episodes. Strange for a series that usually trends by using three or four to make an arc.

Episode 19: I’d say Houtarou’s success is 50% luck and 50% talent. Certain key elements seem drop right into his lap for him to build up on. Mostly from the help of the eternally curious Chitanda. And he has an incredible knack for creating interesting conversations from generally meaningless info.

What I like about his personality is that he is humble and not arrogant, showing he’s only human and can be wrong at times. Not everyone is that honest with themselves. And it’s funny his random attempt to prove something to Chitanda actually got him right on a real crime.

Houtarou couldn’t help but become a little closer to Chitanda given that she was pratically glued to him at the hip with her constant curiosity. He’s most likely asking himself now if he’s attracted to her. To me, he’s a lazy but considerate tsundere.

Episode 20: More Houtarou/Chitanda development. Nothing like being trapped in a freezing shed to deepen the relationship. For someone who seems incredibly carefree, Chitanda was surprising with her deathgrip views on pressure, image and expectations. And I guess the fact she even knows what couples do when they’re locked in a shed suggests she has a somewhat dirty mind beneath the surface. Now I’m curious about what she is or what she does since she said she could see in the dark.

Episode 21: That was a cruel thing for Satoshi to do. Not only did he hurt Mayaka but he dragged Chitanda in the process. His insecurities must be severe for it to the point he’d steal from the one who has a crush on him. I know everyone has their weaknesses but it doesn’t exactly excuse his selfish moves. What made it near unforgiving was that he knew exactly how Mayaka felt.

And on the other hand, I didn’t realize Mayaka has such strong feelings for him. They could be a little too strong, to the point of obsession. The scene of her strapping him down screamed S and M elements. I’d run for the hills if anyone told me they were going to shove anything down my throat. Even Houtarou was shivering. Up until now, it struck me as a “just friends” relationship because she was so busy with a lot of stuff.

PS: Catch with Phi Brain quickly. I think OC will need a shoulder to cry on when finally comes to an end. LOL.

Yeah, what makes it worse for me about Satoshi and Mayaka is that he knows she likes him, and he likes her, and he still dithers like a moron, because he’s so obsessive.

Of course, Mayaka is nearly his equal in the obsession book. I mean, creating chocolate from scratch is *not* an easy thing to do, or even a hard thing to do. It is way up there on the list of things that people won’t even attempt. To do that to ‘prove’ herself to Satoshi? That’s pretty all out there.

Also, I think the shows have been split pretty evenly between multi-episode arcs and single episode standalones. I don’t really think you can count the first two episodes as part of the Sekitani Jun mystery, as they were more setup stuff, and they were separate of themselves. Then we had the angry teacher, then the onsen inn. Then the last four (plus the last one to come) episodes are separate. So that’s 9 out of 22 episodes that were outside of an arc. The other arcs were 3 episodes for Sekitani Jun, 4 episodes for the class film, and 6 episodes for the festival.

So I don’t think these are really out of character for the show. Just different from what we were used to, especially coming out of the Kanya Festa arc.

These past episodes ever since the mountain climbing one have been titled ‘Little Birds remember’ or something like that, so I’m taking this as an arc of separate mysteries. …Though now that you point it out, that festival one way reaaaaally long. It didn’t really feel that long while watching it.

Apparently those names at the end are referring to the LN that the story comes from.

I thought one amazing thing about the Kanya Festa arc was that the first couple of episodes just went along like nothing was happening. So it’s not like we were being dragged through the story that long, it’s like we get to the end of the second episode of the arc and then “hey, way, there’s a mystery here here!” If you go back and rewatch them, you see so many things that foreshadowed the whole thing, but were just not noticed when we went through the first time. It’s really just awesome all around.

19: LOLOL I’d say this whole anime has a talent of making interesting stories from useless info. Yeah, there’s definitely a mix of luck and skill wrapped in there. My mind kept going in circles attributing luck as personal experience (but of course, having personal experience is in a way, luck). But yeah, talent and luck.

20: …Were this any other anime, something would have happened other than conversation xD. Yeah, I took Chitanda’s feelings about beeing seen in a shed with Houtarou as odd, but the girl must be under a lot of pressure to be respectable. It’s not often they bring up Chitanda’s expectations being in a rich esteemed household, so I think that’s why I might have found that surprising.

21: Satoshi is a hard character for me to judge. I DO hope he gets together with Mayaka in the end though.

Yeah, I didin’t think Mayaka had such strong feelings for them either. Though, she’s pretty good at hiding her stress being under pressure (or at least dealing with it and not rampaging around), so I assume that Valentines is the ONE time where it gets to her. …Which makes sense considering the expectations on that day culturally. Ahaha I loved that screenshot of her with the chocolate. It’s a shame that the credits covered a bit of it.

I can see why people would get angry over his indecisiveness, but at the same time, I can feel for him. He’s stuck between two options that would result in a huge change for him either way. I think he feels like he can get away with not making a decision since he’s been able to stay like that for years, so why would he?

…Though after Houtarou’s talk with him and seeing him phone Mayaka, I think he’s finally moved forward. I’m sure he feels bad about Chitanda’s involvement as well.

Houtarou didn’t just conveniently come up with the idea of 10,000 yen bills. At the beginning of the episode, he saw an ad that requested help for catching somebody counterfeiting them. He subconsciously remembered this.